How to Test Email Deliverability (And Instantly Increase Your Conversion Rates)
You’re sending out value-adding emails to your subscribers and that in itself is a major marketing win— but how many of them are actually showing up in the email inboxes of the people you’re trying to reach?
When I ask potential clients this question, I’m often met with a perplexed look and a question that’s similar to this one:
“What do you mean? Don’t they all arrive successfully if the email address is correct?”
My answer?
“No, there’s much more to it than that, which is why it’s so important to test email deliverability and use email optimization strategies to improve performance.”
In fact, as of February 2020, the average email deliverability rate was 79.6 per cent across all email marketing platforms— meaning 20 per cent of marketing emails end up in spam folders where they’re unlikely to ever be seen.
Maintaining a high deliverability rate is essential to running an effective email campaign and seeing a return on your marketing investment, so today I’ll be guiding you through how to test email deliverability and sharing my top tips for avoiding the dreaded junk mail folder.
I encourage referring back to this blog before you send out future email campaigns!
How to Test Email Deliverability
Step 1 - Check Your Spam Score Using Spamcheck
There are several different factors email platforms like Gmail and Outlook screen for when determining if an email is spam or not, including:
Blog subject lines written in ALL CAPS
Email templates with too many images, videos, etc.
Whether or not your IP address has been used to sent spam in the past
The use of spam trigger words like “guarantee”, “risk-free”, or “winner”
Not including required information in your emails, including your physical address, an unsubscribe link, or a true, valid “from” address
Spamcheck is a convenient, free online tool that allows you to run the content of your email through a scanning software and detect any potential red flags before they become an issue. I highly recommend running every email through this tool before sending it out to subscribers, as it’s better to be vigilant than to have your account flagged.
Also, if your spam score is high, make the necessary changes immediately while they’re top of mind. You don’t want any issues slipping through the cracks.
Step 2 - Check Your Sender Reputation
Think of your send score the same way you think of your credit score. If your sender score is low, it tells email mailbox providers like Gmail and Outlook that you have a bad reputation for sending junk mail (which they may penalize you for).
I personally use senderscore.org to monitor my sender reputation and I’ve found it to be incredibly beneficial.
Much like you can’t get approved for a car loan if you have poor credit, it’s nearly impossible to maintain a high deliverability rate if your sender reputation is bad. Check it regularly and continuously make improvements to avoid negative repercussions.
“Much like you can’t get approved for a car loan if you have poor credit, it’s nearly impossible to maintain a high deliverability rate if your sender reputation is bad.”
Step 3 - Review Your Campaign Reports Regularly
Your email campaign reports are your most valuable asset when trying to improve email deliverability. These reports will tell you how many successful deliveries, unsubscribes, bounces and spam reports your email has gotten.
The only way to truly test email deliverability is to send out a campaign and closely analyze the data within your report. If bounces are high, you’ll need to clean up your subscriber list and remove those email addresses. You’ll also want to remove any subscribers who haven’t opened one of your emails in a considerable period of time (3-6 months, ideally).
The more you make these adjustments and monitor performance, the more accurately you’ll be able to test email deliverability and generate better results.
Follow These Tips to Improve Email Deliverability
There are countless tweaks you can make to make your campaigns perform better. Below are a few of the deliverability best practices I’ve found to be most effective:
Implement a double opt-in process
Send all marketing emails from the same email address (I.e. marketing@yourwebsite.com)
Send your emails out in smaller batches (sending emails out to thousands of subscribers at once can get you flagged by ISP filters)
Keep fonts and colours consistent and to a minimum
Make sure you’ve authenticated your website domain with your email provider
Include your brand in your sender name
Always make sure your email subject line is directly related to your email content (misleading headlines will damage your sender reputation)
Looking For Email Marketing Services in Edmonton?
Making the decision to trust your campaigns to a professional is a nerve-wracking process— but it’s also one that will pay off in spades if you choose the right person.
For best results, you don’t want to hire a run-of-the-mill copywriter. It’s best to partner with an Edmonton email marketing expert who’s familiar with content management systems, marketing automation platforms, and analytics tools.
I’ve been implementing email marketing campaigns for 5+ years, helping my clients align these campaigns with their desired branding, marketing, and sales results. I also monitor campaign performance to identify opportunities for improvement, and I’m more than happy to help make adjustments that maximize both profitability and subscriber satisfaction.
Let’s chat about your greater email marketing goals and put a plan in place to achieve them in record time. Schedule a 15-minute discovery meeting. There’s NO obligation to commit!
